Fiction writer and poet

Stuart Dybek

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Talk on craft
3:00 P.M.—CSU Ostrander Auditorium
Reading
7:30 P.M.—CSU Ostrander Auditorium

STUART DYBEK’S third collection of short fiction, I Sailed with Magellan, links eleven stories about Chicago’s South Side to comprise the single greater story of Perry Katzek and his widening, endearing clan. Through these streets walk butchers, hit men, mothers and factory workers, boys turned men and men turned to urban myth. The book solidifies the writer’s standing as one of our finest chroniclers of urban America. In addition to the recent collection, Dybek is the author of two other collections of short fiction, The Coast of Chicago and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, as well as a volume of poetry, Brass Knuckles. His writing has been frequently anthologized and has appeared in numerous periodicals, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Poetry, The Paris Review, and Tri-Quarterly. Among the many honors he has received for his work are a PEN/Bernard Malamud Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, several O. Henry Prizes, and a Pushcart Prize. A professor of English at Western Michigan University, he lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Streets in Their Own Ink, a collection of poems, was published in 2004.

This year's Good Thunder Reading Series is funded by the Minnesota State University Department of English, the MSU College of Arts and Humanities, the MSU Office of Institutional Diversity, MSU Library Services, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment, and individual donors. This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council from funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature. This activity is also made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.